When it comes to fairway woods, equipment
companies often face a perplexing design
challenge: the need to combine the right
amount of speed, forgiveness while maintaining
maximum versatility. But where there’s
challenge, there’s also opportunity, and
Callaway believes they’ve made huge leaps in
fairway wood design with their new XR16 and
XR16 Pro models.

The new woods from Callaway offer an
improved head design and an even hotter face
cup that delivers more consistent speed and
exceptional forgiveness.

In updating the XR line of fairway woods,
Callaway engineers sought to preserve the high
ball speeds and low spin characteristics of last
year’s models while making the new clubs
much more forgiving and versatile. It’s
anything but a simple task when you consider
the fact that most golfers use their fairway
woods in a variety of ways all over the course.

“Fairway woods are some of the most
challenging clubs to design because they have
to do so many things for so many different
types of golfers,” said Evan Gibbs, Senior R&D
Manager of Woods at Callaway. “You want them
to launch high and be easy to hit off the
fairway; you want them to be accurate and
consistent off the tee as a secondary driving
club. They also need to be long enough to help
you reach those long par fives in two. Yet they
also need to land softly enough into longer par
threes.”

Callaway's
high tech Forged Face Cup

Although the first generation XR fairways
were already long and low-spinning, Callaway
felt they still had room to refine their industry-
leading Forged Hyper Speed Face Cup
technology. The face, which extends slightly
over the top of the crown and just below the
leading edge of the sole, is made from a high-
strength carpenter 455 stainless steel alloy and
is forged using a 120-ton press which Gibbs
says gives Callaway exceptional control over
the thickness of the face. Unlike traditional face
inserts, Callaway’s face cups vary in thickness
over a significantly larger percentage of the
face helping golfers to reach greater ball
speeds, even on less than perfectly-centered
strikes.

“The face cup is really the engine of the
club and it helps us generate such high ball
speed,” said Gibbs. “This is our fourth
generation of having a face cup in our woods
and we continue to fine tune and improve this
technology each year in order to maintain our
industry-leading position in fairway-wood
design.”

To help maximize the performance of the
face cup while improving the MOI on all XR16
fairway models, Callaway reconfigured the head
shape to give it an aerodynamic lift. They also
reduced the thickness of the crown and added
an eight-gram weight pad in the back for
greater forgiveness.

The XR16
fairways feature a cambered sole

The new woods saw some outstanding
results during internal player testing. The XR16
models were able to maintain a very similar
trajectory and spin ratio to their predecessors
while dramatically increasing the MOI. That
means the XR16 fairways will be more reliable
performers for all golfers - offering up to 30
percent more consistent carry distance, 19
percent more consistent backspin and 8
percent more ball speed.

But they’re not just long and forgiving off
the tee. Callaway also recognized an
opportunity to improve the turf interaction of
the new clubs. They designed the XR16
fairways with a cambered sole with additional
relief where golfers need it.

Lightweight crown increases MOI & lowers
CG

“The added camber along the leading
edge and along the bottom of the sole provides
a lot of versatility from a variety of lie angles
and playing conditions,” said Gibbs. “The
relieved sections on the heal and toe help
improve the turf interaction and contribute to
the overall versatility of these clubs, making
them effective from all areas of the golf
course.”

Features at a glance:

Aerodynamic head shape and lighter
crown that increases the club’s MOI and lowers
the center of gravity.

Faster ball speeds across the face
from a fourth-generation Forged Hyper Speed
Face Cup made from a high-strength stainless
steel alloy.

Improved Internal Standing Wave
pad that projects out toward the face helping to
maintain the flexibility of the Face Cup while
reducing spin.

Cambered sole, along with relieved
sections on the heal and toe, make the XR16
fairway woods effective from a variety of lies.

The XR16 fairway woods (MSRP $229.99
each) will be offered in seven different lofts
including a brand new 3+ model that plays
similarly to Callaway’s 3-Wood Deep. The XR16
Pro (MSRP $249.99 each) is offered in lofts of
14, 16 and 18 degrees.

The XR16 Pro features a more compact
head shape and is slightly more open at
address for a more neutral shot shape when
compared to the standard model. It comes
stock with a Fujikura Evolution Speeder Tour
Spec 765 FW shaft while the standard fairway
wood is paired with a Fujikura Evolution
Speeder 565 FW.
The entire XR16 line will be available for
retail on January 29th.